Second Look

After photographing horses and chickens east of Stillwater earlier this summer, my friend Dave and I made one last stop at a farm with an old barn and a dozen or so goats milling around. The scene looked amazing from the road.

The sun was about to set, so we hurried into location while there was still light. But after just a few shots, I realized it wasn’t working. The light, the subjects, the composition – they weren’t meshing. What looked so great from the road only minutes ago wasn’t quite the same from our new vantage point.

I paused for a bit, then turned to notice a tractor and second barn which I hadn’t seen from the road, and had earlier walked right by without even a glance. As the sun continued to lower on the horizon, the light created an almost glowing effect on the tractor and barn. I grabbed a wide angle lens, moved in close for an exaggerated perspective, and luckily ended the evening with a great shot.